By Travis Pillow
An interesting letter from a long-time Student Government gadfly appeared in this morning’s Alligator:
Alligator, I’ve got a wager for you. I find it hilarious the Unite Party says it will be “conducting interviews” to determine its executive candidates. It’s common knowledge they have already chosen Marcus Dixon to run for vice president and Virlany Taboada to run for treasurer. Because I feel bad for the students who will come out to interview when Unite has made up its mind, I’m willing to put my reputation on the line. If I’m wrong then feel free to Dart me, Joshua Niederriter, when they announce their candidates. But if I’m right send a Dart at the party for misleading the Student Body. I hope you take me up on this offer because either way you win.
He’s referring, of course, to a system of succession that predates the Unite Party, in which students from Greek houses and various campus groups are rewarded based on loyalty, receiving everything from student money for their groups to leadership positions in SG.
This has been going on for decades, and for a while we at the Fine Print were content to throw up our hands and focus on things we could actually change. But as it turns out, the system of patronage and corruption Niederriter artfully alludes to has meant that over the years, nobody in Student Government was paying attention while the Reitz Union “managers” let the student-funded building fall into disrepair, which is supposedly going to cost us upwards of $40 million to fix.
It’s no exaggeration to say that by failing to give a shit about SG, by failing to pay attention to what our representatives are doing (or not doing), and by turning out in dismally low numbers (never more than 20 percent) to vote in student elections, we have cost ourselves and our successors tens of million of dollars, which could be paid for with increased activity fees. It’s high time we demolished the political machine that currently calls itself the Unite Party, and which has repeatedly failed to look out for our interests.
As for Niederreiter’s letter, it puts the machine in an interesting position: will they reshuffle their slate of candidates just to discredit his assertion?
Related: The Fine Print is seeking a talented, gutsy individual interested in becoming our SG reporter. E-mail web@thefineprintuf.org for more information.
Tags: Reitz Union expansion fee • student government